1996 Ford Taurus GL from North America - Comments

Cracked head cylinder at 70k.

Blown head gasket at 52K.

Steering cable disengaged (not able to put or take it out of gear) at 60k.

Bad sensor(s) - door ajar, check engine lights at 60k.

Nearly $3K in repairs in 14 months. It is soaking me badly. No assistance from the dealer or Ford.

I would like to talk to you about what happened to your car. I have a 1996 Ford Taurus, and even after I had the dealer put on the "factory recall, heater bypass kit", my head gasket still cratered and my motor burned up. I ended up having to pay 4,000 for a new motor.

Also you said Ford wasn't very helpful, tell me what they told you, because I found out that a "goodwill" warranty was extended by Ford, but the dealers won't tell customers about it. I am considering bringing a suit against my local dealer and Ford Motor Company so if you have any information that you feel might be helpful, please let me know. You can contact me at russelafrost@yahoo.com

Thank you,

Russ

I have a 1996 Ford Taurus GL with 123k on it. I bought this car used in 2001 with 83k on it. For the first year and a half it was a decent car with minimal problems. Then, this past November (2002), the A/C compressor died and my car almost caught fire due to the snapped serpentine belt scraping against one of the rotors. Total cost: $1,100. The engine light came on recently, I took it to Auto zone, and got it read, it said the oxygen sensor was bad and the catalytic converter was stopped up, possibly bad. Ugh! This car is starting to turn into a real money pit. That Toyota Matrix looks awfully nice, I might cut my losses instead of continuing to dump money into this car. Both my sister and my step mom have the same car (1992 and a 1994) respectively and have both had serious problems with it.